Seven days in the Square Mile

As the UK general election campaign got under way last week, the FTSE 100 climbed upwards, buoyed by new stock-market highs on Wall Street, where traders cheered the US Fed’s third interest rate cut of the year, and renewed optimism about the US economy and trade talks with China. Sterling recorded its best performance in more than a decade in October, recovering to touch the $1.30 mark as the risk of a no-deal Brexit receded. But traders remain braced for a possibly turbulent election campaign.

Saudi Aramco launched its IPO process, billed as “the world’s biggest stock flotation”. The trillion-dollar oil giant plans to list just 1%-2% of its shares on the Saudi Tadawul market on 11 December in a float that’s been criticised as “the ultimate marriage of carbon and capital”. Foreign investors are sceptical about how Riyadh has valued the energy company.

British Airways owner IAG bought the Spanish airline Air Europa from Globalia for s1bn in cash. The deal will boost Madrid’s status as a hub and strengthen IAG’s position on Latin American and Caribbean routes. The Big Four auditor KPMG is to cut a tenth of its UK partners in an ongoing costcutting programme. Shares in ridehailing giant Uber tumbled after it beat revenue estimates, but posted another big loss. A former employee accused WeWork’s ousted CEO-founder Adam Neumann of “pregnancy discrimination”, alleging that she was demeaned, demoted and eventually fired because of her pregnancies.